taylor-swift

Record Store Day | 2025

Posted on by gshslionsdenadmin

By: Kerrick Shaw 

Needles dropped on spinning vinyl after crowds of eager collectors filled music shops to celebrate Record Store Day. 

April 5 marked the 18th annual Record Store Day, an event that honors independent record stores with exclusive, limited new releases. In many cases, fans crowd the sidewalks before a store’s opening in an attempt to get the record they’re looking for.  

For Greensburg’s local music store, CD Warehouse, nearly 200 people were in line. 

The hall leading into CD Warehouse’s ‘Retro Room,’ where RSD releases were available.

Photo Courtesy: Michael Casper

“Being a part of Record Store Day is truly exciting,” CD Warehouse owner Michael Casper said. “It’s a fun day overall for everyone involved. Ultimately, my favorite part is seeing the amount of people that come out and support a small, locally owned business.” 

Around 1,400 stores participate in the celebration, which makes distribution of the releases challenging, according to Casper. He explained that stores are “not guaranteed” to get everything they order for the event. 

“We ordered 50 Gracie Abrams albums, but only received 10,” he said. “They only made 12,000 of them, so all stores only got a percentage of what they ordered. A total of 2,000 ‘Wicked’ Soundtracks were made for Record Store Day; you can imagine how limited that is.” 

Some artists found in the 2025 releases included Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Wu-Tang Clan, The Cure and many more. About 330 titles were available for this year’s date. 

The Cure’s “Head on the Door” vinyl picture disc, released for RSD 2025.

Photo by: Kerrick Shaw

Art teacher and record collector, Mr. Darryl Audia, said that events like RSD are helping to revitalize the use of physical media. 

“There’s a lot that you miss out on with digital media,” Mr. Audia said. “Growing up with cassettes, mainly, you had something to look at and something to hold in your hand. I often find myself creating a playlist but never listening to an artist’s entire album; records are great for fixing that.” 

For students, records are making somewhat of a comeback as well; some have listened to records their entire lives through family, and others are just diving into collecting albums recently. Freshman Annabelle Volk explained that she is “actively exploring new music” while looking for fairly priced albums. 

“I have about 20 records right now,” Volk said. “I normally go to CD Warehouse and find them for a decent price. I didn’t see anything from this year about Record Store Day, but I am really looking forward to learning more about it and experiencing it next year.” 

Another student, junior J’Taime Turner-Hill, collects records because of her grandma. 

“Growing up, she had a bunch of records,” Turner-Hill said. “Every Christmas she’d play the Michael Jackson Christmas album; it was like a tradition. I got a big bin full of records from her, I couldn’t even count how many.” 

The enthusiasm from younger collectors hasn’t gone unnoticed by record stores. Casper acknowledged how the support from people, especially on RSD, is “amazing” and would be for any store. 

“It’s exciting to see how we have grown and have been able to provide more people with the opportunity to get so many titles,” Casper said. “We have tried to make Record Store Day our own celebration; all of the employees here get really excited seeing everyone come to support small businesses. It’s amazing to see the support, and it feels good knowing that we’re doing a good job at providing physical media.” 

End of an Era

Posted on by gshslionsdenadmin

By: Adison Poole 

Fans walk out of the stadium leaving glitter on the floor and friendship bracelets behind after superstar Taylor Swift closes her tour.  

After over a year of touring, Swift has officially wrapped up her longest tour ever, The Eras Tour. The tour opened on March 17, 2023, and ended on Dec. 8, 2024.  

Over the course of The Eras Tour Swift played a total of 149 shows, which brought in around $2 billion, making The Eras Tour the highest grossing tour of all time. The tour consisted of 51 different cities that spanned over 21 different countries. 

Taylor Swift shows off her new bodysuit in Miami N1.

Photo By: Adison Poole

GS students have attended shows all over the U.S. Senior Cecilia Ecklund attended Cincinnati N2 and shared her experience of the show.  

“I enjoyed every moment of the show, but if I had to pick just one part it would be the surprise song segment,” Ecklund said. “Taylor brought out two special guests, Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams. Additionally, it was the first time she played three surprise songs.” 

Every night Swift opened the show with songs from her seventh album Lover. She then went through the rest of her eras as the show went on, usually playing five songs from each of her 11 albums, for a total of 44-46 songs a night.  

The surprise song segment was different every night of the show, making it a unique experience for those in attendance. Swift opened with a song or mashup on guitar followed by a song or mashup on piano.  

“On other nights, I would occasionally watch the livestreams on TikTok and YouTube,” Ecklund said.  

When people couldn’t attend shows, many tuned into different livestreams on social media platforms. Over the course of The Eras Tour many creators on sites such as Tik Tok gained followers by livestreaming the entire concert for everyone to enjoy from the comfort of their own home.  

Viewers at home not only followed along just for the show, but some also even took part in a game known as Mastermind. The game was presented by a mobile app named Swift Alert. In the game players selected each of Swift’s outfits for the night and answered open ended questions such as what surprise song she might play or if she’d bring out a special guest.  

“I was late to the game, but I started playing Mastermind during the second leg of the U.S. tour,” Ecklund said.  

Senior Lauryn Swierczynski attended Pittsburgh N2 and spoke highly about the experience.  

“My favorite part had to be the electric atmosphere in the stadium,” Swierczynski said. “When the Reputation era [started], the stadium legitimately shook beneath your feet.” 

The shows brought people together all over the world. All over social media influencers posted different videos and pictures that showed them traveling and following the tour. Much like some of those people, sophomore Reese Pittler traveled to attend Nashville N2. 

“When I went to the show it was the night after she announced Speak Now Taylor’s Version,” Pittler said. “Everything around the stadium was purple and very magical.”  

Over the course of the tour Swift was also able to release both Speak Now and 1989 under her own name. She also announced and released her newest album The Tortured Poets Department. 

Swift made an effort to create this atmosphere on each night of the tour. In her recently published book on The Eras Tour, Swift spoke about her experiences and said this tour was her most “ambitious” project yet.  

Swift was able to bring people together in and out of the stadium over the course of her tour. Each night fans gathered outside the event and hung out while Swift performed.  

By the end of the tour Swift was able to play to a grand total of 10,168,008 Swifties inside the stadiums. This number does not account for the fans outside, but on certain nights such as Munich N1 there were an estimated 50,000 fans outside as well.  

“It was such a once in a lifetime experience,” Swierczynski said. “I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it.”  

Fans gather before the Pittsburgh N2 show.

Photo Courtesy: Lauryn Swierczynski